Editorials

Editor's reading list for Gettysburg buffs

With the anniversary of the great battle looming just weeks ahead, there's barely time to bone up on Gettysburg.

And to add to the conflict - as well as the reading-list - here is Evening Sun editor Marc Charisse's list of must-have-reads for battlefield buffs:

1. "The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command," by Edwin Coddington, was published more than 40 years ago, and still remains to most experts the best single-volume book on Lee's 1863 invasion. The old Confederate controversies are all there, but a century after the battle, Coddington returns needed focus to the Union leadership that did, after all, win the battle.

2. "Gettysburg: The Second Day," by former chief Park Service historian Harry Pfanz is easily one of the most beautifully written books on Gettysburg. Pfanz weaves together the complex operations and the lives and experiences of the men who fought on this bloodiest day of the three-day battle. July 2 had the greatest number of opportunities and disasters on both sides, and Pfanz shows his reader exactly why.

3. "Gettysburg Day Two: A Study in Maps." The editor picked up his copy of John Imhof's 1999 collection of tactical maps in a remainder pile in downtown Gettysburg a few years ago for a few dollars. Expect to pay hundreds if you can find one for sale now. No source beats the detailed tactical evolutions depicted on Imhof's regimental-level maps. "Maps of Gettysburg" by Bradley Gottfried is an acceptable substitute, and it also covers the first and third days, though not in the same glorious tactical detail.

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4. "Pickett's Charge" by George Stewart is hard to follow in places if you aren't already well versed in July 3 troop movements. But as it shifts its focus back and forth between antagonists, it captures the confusion and emotional truth of war. In the end, it delivers a cohesive picture of the great charge and its heroic repulse, but the book's real power is in the haunting mental images it conjures of men in battle.

5. In "Gettysburg: A Journey in Time," William Frassanito changed the way we look at the battlefield. His research into early battlefield photography, and discovery of many new images, tell a timeless story in words and pictures. Besides, the many then-and-now pairings are eerily fun to recreate.

6. Pfanz's "Gettysburg: Culp's Hill & Cemetery Hill" isn't quite as wonderful as his "Second Day." But it's a solid, highly readable study of this neglected, yet unique and fascinating part of the battle.

7. "Plenty of Blame to Go Around," by Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi is the best study of J.E.B. Stuart's famous ride around the Union army. It includes detailed descriptions of the battles of Hanover and Hunterstown, as well as an excellent driving tour.

8. "Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg" by John Busey and David Martin is a compendium of the losses at Gettysburg, killed, wounded and captured, regiment by regiment, followed by charts and tables of comparative losses. But in its stark pages are ultimately poignant records of the human cost of war.

9. "The Gettysburg Gospel" by Gabor Boritt. For many years, Gary Wills' "Lincoln at Gettysburg" the editor's favorite book on the November address that redefined the battle and the nation. But Boritt's work is as thoughtful and a better read. A little less erudite, perhaps, but ultimately a richer retelling of the story.

10. "The Complete Gettysburg Guide." Charisse says if he could take only one book out on the battlefield, this would be the one. It's got everything - walking tours, driving tours, battle maps, monuments and battlefield lore - even all those cool rock carvings, dinosaur fossils and other hidden battlefield buff stuff.

We know others will have their own lists, and we welcome their additions and deletions. Please write us with your own must-reads and we will publish them in the weeks to come. We'll also take a look at some of the new battlefield apps on the market for the high-tech history buff.